subject: New Trend: Office textual Harassment [print this page] These days, harassment has even become high-tech because of text messaging. And it"s already termed as "textual harassment". It"s also known as trolling for sex through texts.
It can be as simple as sending a message like "I like how you look. You're sexy", "You"re very beautiful. I like your body", or as graphic as "I"d like to have wild sex with you."
To counter such problem, you can verbally communicate with the harasser and tell him to stop or back off. But if he still continues to send you textual messages, then tell your employer already what's happening.
You can also contact the police but provide them the text messages he sent you as well as what you replied to him. These days, there are several cell phone networks or carriers who have records on messages. You can ask them for the hard copies of these records.
Currently, there are 46 states with criminal laws against text messages.
Whether you"re a guy or a woman, sexual advances can happen to you in the workplace. The harasser can be your boss, your officemate or even your client.
It"s sad when the harasser is not aware that his behavior is already verging on actually harassing his victim/s. Sexual harassment encompasses various behaviors and this adds to the confusion.
Victims may either feel one of these:
"Confusion- On what"s exactly happening
"Blaming the victim- You are blamed for what happened and not the offender.
"Minimizing- You"re trying to justify that the situation is not actually harassment. You convince yourself that you"re just overreacting to what is really happening.
"Embarrassment
"Shame
"Guilt
"Denial
"Fear
"Adaptation
"Numbing
"Triggers
"Invalidation
"Defamation
"Same-sex harassment
"Masculinity
Female bosses as primary sexual victims in the workplace
In Washington, there was a study which examined workplace sexual harassment at work. "This study provides the strongest evidence to date supporting the theory that sexual harassment is less about sexual desire than about control and domination," said Heather McLaughlin, sociologist at the University of Minnesota and principal study investigator.
Usually the male employees may seem to be using harassment equating it to power over women. Ironically the study showed that men who looked or acted feminine experienced more harassment compared to more masculine men.
McLaughlin and the other authors who did the study gathered and examined 2003 and 2004 data of the Youth Development Study (YDS). It was originally a prospective study of teens which began in the 80s and was continued until now.
The respondents were mostly in their 29 and 30 years of age during that time. Its analysis supported the in-depth interviews of the study.
